1. Field
A drinking water supply device capable of providing mineral water and a method of cleaning a pipe in which minerals and mineral water flow of a drinking water supply device are disclosed herein.
2. Background
In general, a drinking water supply device may be a device that supplies drinking water to a user. The drinking water supply device may be a stand-alone device or may constitute part of an electric home appliance, such as, e.g., a refrigerator.
A drinking water supply device may supply drinking water at room temperature. The drinking water supply device may cool drinking water using a cold water supply unit that includes a refrigeration cycle or may heat drinking water using a heater. That is, the drinking water supply device may supply cold water or hot water to a user as needed.
Drinking water may be underground water, raw water supplied from a faucet, or filtered water obtained by filtering raw water. Drinking water may be defined as drinkable water.
Drinking water supply devices may be capable of providing water other than filtered water, cold water, or hot water. For example, the drinking water supply device may include a mineral water supply module that may be capable of providing mineral water that may contain a predetermined amount of minerals to a user.
Minerals may constitute one of the five types of nutritional substances along with protein, fat, carbohydrates, and vitamins. Minerals may play an important part in biochemical activity such as, e.g., catalytic activity, in the human body and in the constitution of, for example, the bones and teeth.
Mineral elements such as calcium (Ca), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), and sodium (Na) may be important for metabolism. Mineral water that may contain these minerals may play a supporting role in improving health, for example, discharging waste matter from the human body and promoting digestion.
When a predetermined amount of minerals are in drinking water, the water may taste better than when the user drinks the water.
To make mineral water, an electro-analyzer, a mineral filter, or a mineral water supply module, for example, that directly supplies mineral liquid to filtered water may be applied to the drinking water supply device.
The mineral water supply module may be more compact than other types of mineral water supply modules. For example, the mineral water supply module for directly supplying condensed minerals to filtered water may be configured to have a structure in which minerals discharged from a mineral cartridge or container configured to store condensed mineral liquid may be supplied to a water discharge pipe through a mineral supply pipe.
As the amount of minerals required to generate or make mineral water is much smaller than the amount of filtered water, the mineral supply pipe may have a micro channel configured to supply a very small amount of minerals.
When energy is applied to minerals that exhibit high hardness, the minerals may crystallize and scale. The scale deposits may reduce the flow sectional area of the pipe. As a result, the flow of minerals may be obstructed, and a valve may malfunction. As the micro channel may have a reduced inner diameter such that a very small amount of minerals may flow through, the micro channel may become easily clogged due to the scale deposits.
Thus, there may be a high demand for a structure and method that may be capable of efficiently cleaning pipes in which mineral water flows and micro channels through which minerals may be supplied.
In the mineral water supply modules that supply minerals using a mineral cartridge, it may be necessary to periodically replace the mineral cartridge. If minerals remain in the mineral cartridge or in a mineral cartridge receiver in which the mineral cartridge is received, the minerals may overflow the mineral cartridge and may contaminate structures around the mineral cartridge receiver unless the residual minerals are discharged in advance.
A cleaning method that may be capable of cleaning the mineral water supply module when replacing the mineral cartridge may also improve sanitation.